Embodiments of the present invention relate to bioreactors used for culturing cells, and more specifically, to a heating assembly for a bioreactor and an associated method thereof.
Cell culture technology has advanced significantly over the last few decades and has contributed immensely in therapeutic applications, clinical studies, pharmaceutical research and development, and bioprocess industry. To meet an increasing demand of biomolecules, for example, protein or viable cells or enzymes or metabolic products for therapeutic applications or non-therapeutic applications, large scale manufacturing facilities and high throughput technological developments for culturing large quantities of cells are highly desirable.
For large scale operations, a seed train expansion process is typically followed to scale up the cell culture production from a small volume to a large volume. The seed train expansion process is generally initiated by inoculating cryopreserved cells into a small culture device such as T-flasks or petri-plates. The cultured cells from such small culture device are then transferred to a small suspension culture vessel for further culturing of cells. As the cells grow to a predefined quantity within such smaller culture vessel, the cells are further transferred to large suspension culture vessel filled with more cell-culture media. Such a process of growing and transferring the cells between the culture vessels requires frequent manual intervention, skilled operator for managing the seed train expansion process, and use of a plurality of culture vessels, thereby resulting in increased probability of introducing contamination into the cell culture.
Multi-scale bioreactors having a complex structure and capable of supporting a large volume range are used as an alternative mechanism for culturing cells. In such a bioreactor, a single culture vessel is configured to receive an inoculation of starter cells. Further, the cell-culture media is added continuously to the culture vessel including the starter cells to facilitate scaling up of the culture volume in a plurality of steps in the single bioreactor vessel. However, maintaining various parameters such as potential of Hydrogen (pH), dissolved oxygen (DO), and temperature within the multi-scale bioreactor is difficult. Specifically, maintaining a temperature condition or temperature regime of the cell-culture media within a culture vessel of such bioreactor is challenging and difficult. This is further accentuated by the challenge of preventing condensation of water on side walls of the head space of the culture vessel which may result in altering osmolality of the bioreactor.
Accordingly, there is a need for an enhanced heating assembly for a bioreactor and an associated method for heating a culture vessel of the bioreactor.